been protected, for the wages and conditions have been fixed only after careful investigations in which your union representatives acted in coöperation with representatives of the government."

In order to fully protect its citizens the government also says that through the Labor Department it will have made careful studies of any changes in the cost of living and readjust the wage scale in proportion to any increase that may take place.

If we are to have the same experience as other warring nations, as time goes on government contracts will require the full capacity and energy of the nation, and private contracts will play a small part in industry. So far the government has been feeling its way in this untried experiment of mobilizing labor, and the result is still chaotic. Six or eight various departments have each followed their own particular method of dealing with labor questions. As a rule, so-called boards having limited powers have been created within each department, such as the Army, Navy, Shipping Board and others. These boards are composed of government representatives and representatives of organized labor. The result has been that no definite standards have been set and these departments, as well as contractors, having both government and private work have been allowed to bid indiscriminately against each other for men, causing a rapid increase in wages; but what is more important, this lack of method has seriously reduced efficiency by creating an abnormal "labor turnover." Manufacturers state that it requires much time and costs fifty dollars to break in a skilled mechanic to a new position, so one can imagine the loss of time and dollars that is going on daily, owing to the fact that thousands of men are being enticed from plant to plant or industry to industry.

An example that has come to my attention recently is this: by much effort and expense three hundred boiler makers were taken from some non-essential trades near St. Louis and sent to shipyards at Seattle. They were only there a few weeks when inducements were offered them to leave and go to St. Paul to work on refrigerating machinery. Railroad efficiency is being rapidly reduced by the men in their shops being drawn into other industries while highly skilled men in certain textile mills having government contracts were taken away by companies manufacturing talking machines, owing to the higher wages offered. Such methods only add to the confusion. They do not increase the number of skilled men avail

able, but they do seriously destroy all efficiency of production. The workers become dissatisfied and restless and drift from plant to plant trying to improve their condition. In times of peace under normal industrial conditions this is harmful but in time of war it may become fatal to the national cause. Neither contractors nor workers are to blame for the condition. The forces at work are too large to be handled by any individual or association. The government of the United States is the only agency with sufficient power to deal with the problem. The longer it is allowed to run unchecked the more difficult will be the task of mobilizing industry.

All government departments and contractors must come to approximately the same wage scale for the same service, if we are to have any stability in industry during the war. The War Industries Board will be forced to cut off all supplies to private manufacturers who exceed the wage scales set by the government boards. Over the various departmental boards there should be one supreme board to lay down general principles and conditions for the guidance of the inferior boards so that uniformity in decisions may be brought about. Such a supreme board could also act as a board of appeal from the decisions of the departmental boards.

There is one other piece of machinery which is now being developed and which must come into general use before labor can be properly mobilized. Secretary Wilson, through the Department of Labor, is opening federal employment bureaus in many places. These must be rapidly extended and all employers must be required to apply for workers to these bureaus, and all those seeking positions must be compelled to register at the bureaus. As long as private employers are permitted to arrange with men to leave their jobs and come to them, they will continue to raid each other's establishments notwithstanding agreements to the contrary. It is only through such public employment bureaus that labor can be properly distributed and a surplus in one place shifted to supply the shortage in another. Promiscuous advertising by employers in newspapers in distant cities is no guarantee that the men may not be drawn from equally important industries or that those who answer the advertisement are skilled in the trades required. A large number of men may respond to an advertisement when a comparatively small number is needed, thus increasing the present faulty distribution of labor. These federal bureaus can be in touch with condi

tions in all parts of the country and in all industries. Agents can be sent out who can examine the men, properly classify them, and see that they are taken from only non-essential industries. Such bureaus will prevent the loss of much time by men seeking employment, and do much to properly distribute the skilled labor required. To sum up, there are two forces, at present, working against the mobilization of labor; first, the competitive bidding for labor by governmental departments and private contractors, doing both government and private work; second, the unequal and poor distribution of labor. These two difficulties can only be overcome by the patriotic coöperation of plant owners and works; first, in assisting the various government labor boards in establishing a national standardization of wages, hours and conditions, thereby removing all inducements for changing a place of employment; second, in encouraging and supporting federal labor employment bureaus, for the proper distribution of labor throughout the nation. Unless these means are taken, labor cannot be mobilized, and without stabilized labor, industry cannot be mobilized.

The views herein expressed are the result of eight months experience in attempting to adjust wages, hours and conditions of employment in the shipyards. We have heard the employers and the men from practically all of the one hundred and thirty yards, from Bath, Maine, to Houston, Texas, and from Los Angeles, California, to Seattle, Washington. We have inspected many of the largest yards. We have found human nature about the same whether we were dealing with representatives from the Atlantic, Pacific, or Gulf coasts, or whether it was a shipyard owner or a representative of the workers, who came before us. We have not been surprised, therefore, when our decisions have frequently been as forcibly criticized by one group as by another. We have been described as anarchists, capitalists and theorists. We soon learned, however, that "adjusting" did not settle the problems presented to us. To meet the situation, standards had to be "fixed" and made to apply universally over a large area. This has finally resulted in our establishing only two scales of wages, with merely slight differences, one for the Pacific coast, and one for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Our greatest difficulty has been to get people to think in national terms instead of local, in terms of industry instead of the point of view of their shipyard or their craft.

To win the war we must forget many of our peace traditions and prejudices, and fearlessly adopt war measures. Above all, we cannot hesitate to act because we are afraid of what may happen after the war. If we do not win, there will be little left to strive for. To win for democracy, no price is too high, and no sacrifice too great.

HOW ENGLAND MEETS HER LABOR

BY MRS. J. BORDEN HARRIMAN,

Advisory Commission, Council of National Defense, Washington, D. C.

In fighting for democracy abroad we are gaining two of the biggest democratic principles at home. The first is the recognition of the rights and dignity of labor, and the other is women's freedom, because never before have we so clearly realized that the output of the machine is just as essential to victory as the gun at the front; and for the first time in the world's history mankind is looking to women to do specific and concrete tasks that are constructive as well as preventive. Every avenue of work is now open to women, and not only that but the whole world is expecting women to do that work well; for the first time women in industry are occupying just as dignified a position as men in industry.

Substitution of skilled labor for unskilled, or women taking the place of men, has not as yet come into as common use here as it has in England, and probably never will because of the fact that there is a much larger percentage of men to the population in this country than in England. At this moment 1,413,000 women are replacing men in industry in England in three kinds of substitution. One is direct substitution, where women replace men directly (this is not very common in skilled trades); and the other is indirect substitution, where women replace unskilled or partially skilled men so that they may be released to take the places of skilled workers who are called to the colors. In the latter case the women are generally lost sight of because of the attention concentrated on the skilled workers.

Then there is what is called group substitution, where a group of women take the place of a smaller group of men with a re-arrange

ment of the processes. Women, with the help of improved automatic machinery, are able to do the work previously done by fully skilled workers. This is the most important means by which the labor of women has been introduced in England.

Processes are greatly modified in some cases. If a woman, working a machine next to a man working a similar machine, is not getting equal pay for what seems to be equal work, one is told that the process has been modified so as to suit the woman. During the war women have been brought into many processes which before were deemed unsuitable for them.

We have much to learn from the splendid precautions that have been taken as to the health of the workers in England, but those precautions were not taken at first. England has learned through experience that it pays better for the nation to conserve the health of her workers than to work them too long hours and at dangerous trades without proper care.

I went to several filling factories while in England and remember one that impressed me a great deal because it was the first one I had visited that consisted of a number of small houses, with only six or eight people working in each. They are separated from each other, so that in case of an explosion the whole factory is not endangered. These factories are all divided into what are called clean and dirty areas, and the houses are connected by wooden walks, which are the clean areas. When a visitor arrives he is required to go into the dressing room of the dirty area and leave his boots and put on shoes which are provided, so as to avoid taking out any of the dust which might be picked up on the floor.

These women workers are really in danger just as the men at the front are, especially those working in the TNT factory. Each factory has a hospital, and we saw in the wards persons in different stages of TNT poisoning. In the early days of the war it was very difficult to recognize TNT poisoning, and sufferers would very often be well advanced in the disease before they were taken care of, and in most cases it was too late to do anything for them so that they died in a very short time. Even now the medical profession is divided as to how the disease is contracted. One school in England thinks it is from absorption through the skin and another thinks that it is breathed in, but still they are watching the workers so closely that the percentage of deaths has been cut down